Wednesday, May 24, 2017

ABC News "Foster parent shortage dire as heroin overdoses rise"

"In a policy brief from July 2016 titled "Families in Crisis," the HRSA stated that the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Health Services “is concerned that the opioid crisis could exacerbate child abuse and neglect given that we’re seeing a link nationally. State child welfare systems have reported that they are experiencing an increase in families coming to their attention with substance use problems impacting their ability to safely parent.”

One Florida community has been hit particularly hard by this phenomenon.

Kathryn Shea, a licensed clinical social worker and president of the Florida Center for Early Childhood, told ABC News the problem is especially acute in Florida’s Judicial Circuit 12, which includes Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties.

“The little ones in foster care are coming in enormous rates right now because of their parents’ heroin addictions,” she said...."